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Book_: 




































TWO LETTERS 


ADDRESSED TO 

General William Hull 

On his conduct as a Soldier, in the Surrende 
of Fort Detroit, to General Brock, 
without resistance, in the com¬ 
mencement of the late war 
with Great Britain. 

BY TIMOTHY WALKER, 

Of Hopkinton, Mass, 


BOSTON s 

Printed for Timothy Walker. 

1821, 




El 356 

H5V2. 

PREFACE. 

IF the question should be asked why the following 
letters to Gen. Hull were not written at, or about the 
time that he was tried and received his sentence I 
3hould answer and say at the time that I read his trial 
I had a strong inclination to write to him concerning 
his conduct, but for some reasons which I don’t now 
well recollect (perhaps very frivolous,) I put it off 
from time to time until the early part of the year 1820 
to which time for reasons which I have distinctly stated 
in my first letter to the General, I spent the greater part 
of my time in reading, and amongst many other things I 
came across some appropriate remarks that had been 
made on the treacherous and abominable conduct of 
Gen. Arnold, in the Revolutionary war which caused 
me to reflect back to that time, and think what an un¬ 
pleasant situation I should have been in if Arnold had 
succeeded in his nefarious plan, being then a soldier on 
the lines, ifl recollect right about twenty or twenty- 
live miles below King’s Ferry, on the West side of the 
Hudson River, separated between two and three hun¬ 
dred miles from my parents, a wife and several small 
children which were as dear to me as my own life. F 
then thought by these reflections that I could form a 
correct idea of what must have been the feelings of 
the brave officers and soldiers that were so needlessly 
given up to their enemies by Gen. Hull in our late war^ 
These reflections gave a fresh spring to my hereto¬ 
fore languid inclination to write to the General, so on 
the 12th of February, 1820 I set down and took my pen 
to hand for the sole purpose of expressing the real and 


IV 


undisguised sentiments of my heart to Gen. Hull, rela¬ 
tive to his abilities and conduct in former days, and also 
my pointed disaprobation of his conduct in upper Cana¬ 
da, and at Fort Detroit in our late war. 

At the time I wrote the first letter to the General it 
was far from my intention ever so - far to expose my 
weakness as to give the letter publicity, but after hav¬ 
ing the letter transcribed by a person that can write 
far better than I can myself at this advanced age, and 
sending ihe same to ihe General, 1 shewed the original 
to many persons, some of which advised me to have it 
printed, still I gave them but little encouragement of so 
doing, at length Mr. Lawson Mc’Farland of Hopkinton 
put into my hands a history entitled Sketches of the 
War ; and by perusing its pages in course, I came to a 
letter that was addressed to the secretary of War by 
Col. Lewis Cass, (now Governor Cas9,) concerning his 
giving up Fort Detroit and the troops under his com- 
m ind to the enemy, and his sentiments & comments in 
that letter were so congenial to my feelings, and coin¬ 
cided so well with the essence of my letter to the Gen¬ 
eral that I shortly after sent the General a second let¬ 
ter in which I gave him to understand that if 1 did not 
receive some answer from him shortly I should have 
the letter printed, and as 1 have not yet heard any 
thing from him, I have at length concluded to have the 
whole printed and sent abroad in (he world without any 
expectation or desire to court praise, or without any 
dread or fear of offending any, 


The Author. 




Hopkinton, Febuary 12, 1820. 

To Gen. W illiam Hull, 

Sir, I Timothy Walker, am a man that is 
far advanced in life, 1 am, this day, sixty 
seven years of age ; and I live at present, in 
an humble sphere ; and I am a man to whom 
the God of nature has not been over bounti¬ 
ful ; and what adds to my misfortune, is, my 
acquired, are no better than my natural abili¬ 
ties. Yet 1 am not wholly without consolations 
for I have been endued w 7 ith a very good 
memory, and 1 retain it, in some degree, to 
the present day, which I think is a very great 
blessing. And I have another, very exalted 
consolation, which is, I belong to that class of 
men, sir, as well as yourself, to whom Presi¬ 
dent Monroe, in eighteen hundred seventeen, 
in his answer to an address from the society 
of Cincinati, in the City of Philadelphia, said 
u that nothing can be more gratifying to me, 
than to meet the surviving members of my 
associates ii) arms, who distinguished them¬ 
selves in the revolutionary contest.” 

Notwithstanding, sir, you and I were in 
the tented fields, in the Lievolutionry war at 
the same time, yet I cannot say that 1 ever 
knew 7 , or saw your face, until after that war 
was over. But since that contest closed I 
have known you iti various capacities. I 
have known vou as a Judge of the Common- 
plea Court, and I have known you in your rnd- 


it ary capacity. When you was a Brigadier 
General, I had occasion, in the capacity of 
Clerk of the west Company in Hopkinton, to 
make complaint against two persons for ne- 
gleet of duty, at a brigade muster in Wal¬ 
tham, and we had trial before you, at your 
dwelling-house, near Angers Corner in iNew- 
ton ; and I must confess that I had, at that 
time, a very good opinion of your abilities, 
and also of your conduct; and my good opin¬ 
ion did follow you round, through the vari¬ 
ous posts of honor and profit, that were sub¬ 
sequently confered on you by Government. 
And after our late war, in eighteen hundred 
and twelve, was declared against Great Brit¬ 
ain, and I learnt by the public papers, that 
you was appointed to take command of the 
northwestern army, I was well pleased from 
a belief that your patriotism, courage, and 
generalship, would be adequate to the impor- 
' tant undertaking ; and when it was announc¬ 
ed in the papers, that Gen. Hull had crossed 
over, & planted the American standard in U. 
Canada my heart almost leaped for joy,from a 
belief, that, if you did not conquer the whole 
of the Upper Province,you would soon make 
yourself master of' the enemies’ out-posts.— 
And it did appear as though you might have 
taken Fort Malden with east*, and with but 
1 very little loss of men, if you had put the 
plan into execution, which was concerted by 
, the council of war which you had called to¬ 
gether for that purpose. But instead of 




6 


doing, you struck jour colours and tents, re- 
crossed the river, took shelter in Fort De¬ 
troit, and. left all the inhabitants of Upper 
Canada that had stayed at home, and not tak¬ 
en up arms on either side; and all those that 
flocked to your standard, to whom you had 
promised protection in your pompous procla¬ 
mation, to the mercy only of the merciless— 
And then, sir , your sun of glory set, and nev¬ 
er has shewn his head since ; .and left you 
overshadowed with a dark cloud. And it was 
not long after, that another, still darker 
cloud arose in your hemisphere, in the fog 
and mist of which, you did not only give up 
Fort Detroit, with all the stores that were 
in it of every description, and the whole of 
the Michigan Territory, but you gave u‘p 
yourself, and a very respectable body of offi¬ 
cers and soldiers that, in all probability, 
would have fought like a band of spartans, if 
they had been commanded by a Macomb, a 
Brown, a Harrison, or by the gallaot and in¬ 
trepid MajorCrogan, whoso boldly, and suc¬ 
cessfully thundered death & carnage through 
the ranks of his enemies, at Lower Sandusky. 
Such are the men, sir, that you gave up to 
the disposal of a cruel and barbarous enemy, 
which you might, in all probability, have re¬ 
pelled, and caused to retreat with great loss. 
And it is my soul’s opinion, that you would 
have made the attempt, at least, if you had 
not approximated nigher to the chaiacter of 
a traitor, or paltroon, than you did to that of 


7 


a patriotic and bpld commander. A shock¬ 
ing, shocking? and lamentable tale ! 

At length after a considerable lapse of 
time, you was formally exchanged, and'a 
Court Martial appointed, and you held to 
answer to certain charges and specifications, 
which were alledgcd against you, concern ine 
your conduct again. Alter some considera¬ 
ble length of time, a good friend of mine put 
into my hand a pamphlet, that gave a full, 
and no doubt, a correct account of your trial 
and sentence ; and I lost no time in reading 
until I had finished ft. And you may well 
conclude, sir, by that time, the undisguised 
good opinion, which 1 formerly had of 
you, was so changed, that it would have 
sunk to the bottom of the bottomless pit, if 
there had been any such place, Now 1 must 
take the liberty, sq far to digress, as to em¬ 
ploy my pen for a few moments, to tell some 
things about other persons, whose characters 
stand at present, as far above yours, as the 
heavens are higher than the earth. By rea¬ 
son of old age and infirmities, the extreme 
depth of the snow and the severity of the 
weather, i have not done much of late, but 
amuse myselt with books. And I have late¬ 
ly read the Naval Biography for the second 
or third time. It gives a particular account 
of the births, parentage, and noble deeds of 
eighteen of our Naval heroes. And I have 
in the course of the present week, been read¬ 
ing President Monroe’s tour, through the 



northwestern States in eighteen hundred 
seventeen. And when 1 take into con- 
sidertion the many distinguished and mark¬ 
ed civilities, praises, and honors, that were 
so meritoriously bestowed on him ; and also 
the unblemished characters and valiant deeds 
of our naval heroes, and attempt to contrast 
them with the character of Gen. Wm. Hull, 
in our late war w ith Great Britain, I must 
confess i Know of no language, that would be 
competent to discribe it. But suffice it to say, 
if 1 had the wisdom of Solomon, and the elo-' 
quenoe of Cicero, 1 think the task would be 
too hard for me to perform. ^Now, sir, 
whether you have ever considered of your 
conduct in your retired hours, or not, I can¬ 
not say ; but this I think 1 can safely say, 
if you ever have reflected back, and duly 
considered how many tears of sorrow, days 
of mourning, and sleepless nights have been 
spent by the Fathers and Mothers, Sisters 
and Brothers, of these unhappy men that you 
so needlessly and basely gave up to a cruel 
enemy, many of whom were transported to an 
inhospitable clime, and there made to suffer 
with cold and hunger ; l say sir, if ever you 
have seriously considered of those things, I 
should not have thought it strange, if you 
had, Judas like, gone and hanged yourself. 
But, sir, 1 not only advise, but intreat of you 
never to be guilty of suicide, for that will on¬ 
ly add new weight to yonr load of guilt, 
which, it would seem, is already heavy 
enough to sink the town in which you live^ 


9 


if there were not more than five or ten right¬ 
eous persons in it, to ward and parry off the 
frowns and judgments of heaven. /very 
well know, sir, it is an old saying it is hard 
to twit by facts ; but how it is, that you can 
content yourself, and have the boldness to 
stay among people that know you have just¬ 
ly forfeited your life, and have had the sen^ 
tence of death pronounced upon you for a 
crime, which ought never to have been par¬ 
doned ; and that it is only from the clemen¬ 
cy of President Madison, that you are now 
the living monuments of God’s sparing mer¬ 
cy is a mystery to me. 

Therefore, if I were to give you any fur¬ 
ther advice, it would be to stay no longer in 
Newton, to shelter your guilty head under 
the roof of a splendid mansion, which, 1 have 
great reason to believe, was built with British 
gold! which, I think, ought to have been 
otherwise appropriated, I think it would 
been better, if it had been put to the same 
use that the Chief Priests put the thirty pie¬ 
ces of silver to, which were given to Judas, 
todjetray his master $ which was to buy the 
potter’s field, for a place to bury strangers 
in, because, they said, it was the price of 
blood ; Or, ifit had been God’s will to have 
it applied to you, as the ancient natives of 
South America did their shining ore to 
Fernando Cortez, who was one of the earli¬ 
est Spanish adventurers to that region, which 
was to pour it down his throat, boiling hot, 
through a funnel, I verily believe in my heart? 




there are a great many people, that would 
have said, Amen, Amen ! the will of the Lord 
is done. 

Is there not some curse, some hidden thunder 
Red with uncommon wrath ! 

To blast the wretch, that ow'es his greatness 
To his countries ruin J ! 

For fear that I shall give you some occasion 
to think, that I am too sarcastic, and bear 
down too hard, 1 will change my discouise, 
go back and tell what whold be my further 
advice, if I was under any obligation to give 
it ; which would be for you to stay no longer 
in Newton, but repair without delay to some 
unfrequented wilderness, where the foot¬ 
steps of no human being ever before were 
seen ; and were no voice is to be heard, but 
the hideous yells of ferocious beasts of prey, 
that are thirsting for your blood ; and there 
in an humble, yea in a very humble, 
and peuitent manner with deep contri¬ 
tion of heart, fall down on your knees, 
and endeavour, by your unfeigned and un¬ 
ceasing prayers a*nd tears, to appease the 
wrath of an offended God, and if possible, 
obtain forgiveness for the sms that yoiu have 
committed against him and your country;— 
and there remain a despised and miserable 
Troglodyte, until death shall end the scene 
I hope, sir, you will have the goodness to 
receive, and read ihis long scrawl with com- 
po ure. and keep it for an admonisher ; it is 


n 


possible, it may be the means of saving your 
soul alive. By so doing, you will oblige your 
friend, TIMOTHY WALKER. 

Gen. Wm. Hull. 

N. B. If you are disposed to make a return, it 
will gladly be received by me. 


Hopkinton , November i %th, 1820. 

SIR, 

Nine months ago this day I addressed 
a long letter to you in which 1 bestowed up¬ 
on you as l then, and now think some mer¬ 
ited encomiums respecting your abilities and 
conduct in former days. I also with as 
much frankness in the same letter expressed 
my pointeddisaprohation against your de¬ 
testable and deleterious conduct while at the 
head of the North Western army in upper 
Canada, and at Fort Detroit in our late war 
with Great Rritian. 

At the time I sent the letter to you, I en¬ 
tertained a strong hope and had some ex¬ 
pectation that I should receive an answer to 
my letter, from you, but alas ! those expect¬ 
ations have long ago been at an end.—• 
Therefore I take this method to inform you, 
sir, that I have now in my possession the o- 
riginal letter in my own hand writing, from 
which, the letter I sent to you was copied, 
and that I have, at divers times and by di¬ 
vers persons, been importuned to have said 
letter printed. Now, sir, unless I receive, 




and that without delay, some permanent and 
satisfactory objections to the measure from 
you, 1 have made up my mind to yield to 
those importunities, and have the letter print¬ 
ed and sent abroad into the world ; where 
I fancy it will be read with delight by his ex¬ 
cellency Governor Cass, & by the freemen in 
the Michigan Tetritory, whom it appears, 
you was willing to make vassal slaves at 
the time that you gave up Fort Detroit. 

from yours, 

TIMOTHY WALKER. 
To Gen. WILLIAM HULL. 


FINIS, 














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